If you're in a position where you practically need a Facebook account because of work or school culture but you're not particularly fond of leaving your virtual self unattended, the "super-logoff" technique gives you radically more control over your Facebook account.

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Danah Boyd is a researcher studying how people manage their online identities. While studying how teenagers use social networks she came across an interesting pattern; the teens were using the deactivation feature in Facebook as a means of exercising tight control over their virtual identity.

Mikalah uses Facebook but when she goes to log out, she deactivates her Facebook account. She knows that this doesn't delete the account – that's the point. She knows that when she logs back in, she'll be able to reactivate the account and have all of her friend connections back. But when she's not logged in, no one can post messages on her wall or send her messages privately or browse her content. But when she's logged in, they can do all of that and she can delete anything that she doesn't like. Michael Ducker called this practice "super-logoff" when he noticed a group of gay male adults doing the exact same thing.

Obviously this is an extreme maneuver. For many people it would remove the things they like about Facebook—random wall posts, Facebook messaging as an email-substitution, etc.—but for others it would offer them nearly airtight control over their Facebook account. Nothing could happen on their account when they weren't actively logged on and monitoring it. Check out the full article at the link below for more insights into profile management and the different ways people are defensively managing their social media accounts. For more ideas on guarding your Facebook privacy, check out our guide to quitting Facebook without really quitting.